Batting coach Greatbatch says Kiwis ‘played like dicks’ in Bangladesh

WELLINGTON - New Zealand cricket team batting coach Mark Greatbatch has issued a stinging criticism of his batsmen as the team leaves for India tomorrow, saying that they played like dicks during the recent one-day tour of Bangladesh.

Greatbatch didn’t single out anyone, but the comments appeared to be directed at the ODI top order. Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, BJ Watling and Ross Taylor are all part of the test squad.

“I think some aren’t good enough. I think some think they are better than they are and the third one, I think, is the mind. We’ve got to get our mind right and sometimes that requires patience, sometimes it requires being aggressive. What it requires is actually sorting out the cricket smarts and weighing up the situation that you’re playing in an we’ve got some work to do in all those areas,” Greatbatch told RadioLive.

It maybe recalled that New Zealand lost the series four nil, and Greatbatch said in a radio interview that some of the batsmen had inflated opinions about their abilities.

Heath Mills, the head of the New Zealand Cricket Players Association, felt the players would take the criticism on the chin and seek to improve their performance.

“Paddy [Greatbatch] is an emotional guy, he cares passionately about New Zealand and the Black Caps and I know he is as gutted as anyone else at the results in Bangladesh,” the Dominion Post quoted Mills, as saying.

He added: “It’s been a difficult time and a lot of people have been rightly upset about the performance. There is always going to be some harsh words spoken, so I think everyone’s got to focus on being constructive and getting the job done in India and getting the team back performing where it can.”

New Zealand’s test squad has little time to prepare in India, with no warmup match before the first of three tests starting in Ahmedabad on Thursday. (ANI)